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Feinstein on Being Called ‘an Idiot’: ‘Bob Knight Called Me a Pimp and a Whore’

MIAMI, FL - APRIL 16: Manager Davey Johnson of the Washington Nationals prepares his team to play against the Miami Marlins at Marlins Park on April 16, 2013 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images)

Davey Johnson (credit: Marc Serota/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – In response to Davey Johnson calling him “an idiot” for suggesting Stephen Strasburg’s shutdown in 2012 is still haunting the Nats in his latest column, John Feinstein of the Washington Post said, “Bob Knight called me a pimp and a whore twenty-seven years ago, so everything is sort of mild by comparison.”

Here are the key players in this developing drama, which began to unfold over the airwaves on Wednesday: Stephen Strasburg, Davey Johnson, John Feinstein and the looming thought that the Nats could have won it all last year if they’d had their ace against the Cardinals in the NLDS.

“I’ve known Davey for a long time,” he explained. “I first met Davey Johnson in 1983 when he was managing in Tidewater (now the Norfolk Tides) when I went down to do a story on Clint Hurdle trying to make a comeback with the Mets, and always liked him; always think he’s been a superb manager wherever he’s been. It’s a little bit tough for a guy to fairly comment on something when he just said he hasn’t read it, and he did go on and say, if I’m not mistaken, when they asked him if the Nationals would have won last year if Strasburg had pitched, wasn’t his answer ‘Probably?’”

“He said ‘probably,’ yea,” Danny Rouhier answered.

“Well then I can’t be a complete idiot, can I?” Feinstein claimed. “Since my premise was, if Strasburg pitches they win last year, and if they win last year, they don’t have the hangover that I believe clearly affected this year.”

“Why don’t you help already? Just call him an idiot and get it over with,” Holden Kushner said.

“No, I don’t think Davey’s an idiot at all,” Feinstein returned. “I did write a note to John Dever, the Nats’ PR guy, and said ‘So does this mean Davey doesn’t want to come on and do one-on-one with me when the season’s over?’ And Dever wrote back ‘Dear idiot, I think not.'”

Feinstein would go on to defend his column for about the next ten minutes, pointing to the circumstances being different at the end of the season with Strasburg in 2012, than they were when Jordan Zimmermann was shutdown the year before; that difference being postseason expectations.